Many products are provided to consumers in granular form which includes any form which has physical characteristics similar to granular materials, such as powders. Among the list of granular consumer products are many laundry detergents and dish washing detergents. Granular detergents are generally used in relatively large volumes. Consequently, large volumes of these products are consumed each year. Due to the vast quantity of consumer products sold in granular form, there is a great demand for packages to house these products.
Packages for granular consumer products should have several key characteristics. The package must be able to withstand the rigors of transportation from the manufacturer to the retailer and to the ultimate place of use by the consumer. It is also desirable that the package enable the consumer to remove product therefrom as simply as possible. An example of a preferred package for housing granular products is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,420 PACKAGE WITH MULTIPLY SIDE PANELS AND STRAP HANDLE, issued to Gunn et al. on Jan. 22, 1991, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The Gunn reference discloses a substantially rectangular package having a hinged lid and a bayonet handle. The package includes a full length liner along the front, back and side walls (all of said walls being referred to as a single "side wall" in the Gunn at al. reference but will be referred to herein as separate front back and side walls) to help prevent sifting of the product out of the package.
Recently, however, there has been a desire to provide locking flaps to the above package so as to form a snap-lock package. Snap-lock packages reduce the amount of product that is lost when the lid of the package is opened, holds the lid in place if the package is turned over in storage or transit and also helps prevent against inadvertent opening of the package. An example of a snap-lock carton for granular materials is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,734 RECLOSABLE CARTON FOR GRANULAR MATERIALS, issued to Ruehl et al. on Nov. 10, 1992, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. However, when a snap-lock arrangement of the type disclosed in Ruehl is applied to a package of the type disclosed in Gunn, that is a package having a full length liner and generally shown in FIG. 16 of the Ruehl reference, many problems arise. The weight of the granular material housed within the package causes the package to bulge, particularly when the package is large and houses large amounts of granular product. When the package bulges along the front wall, the locking flap (referred to as the "proximal locking portion" in Ruehl et al. but referred to herein as the locking flap) will begin to curl and the snap-lock feature of the package will not function. There has, therefore, been a desire to provide a snap-lock package for housing granular materials having a liner to prevent sifting and wherein bulging of the front wall is substantially prevented so that the locking-flap will not curl and the snap-lock feature will operate.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a snap lock package for housing granular detergents having good anti-sift properties and wherein the front wall of the package is substantially prevented from bulging so that the snap-lock continues to operate throughout the use of the package.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a package that is inexpensive to manufacture.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a package that can be easily stacked, before being erected, in a warehouse or the like.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a package that is easy for the consumer to open.
The aforementioned and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent hereinafter.